Mid – term assessment Variant 3 Task Reading section. Multiple choice question

Mid – term assessment

Variant 3

Task 1. Reading section. Multiple choice question

Choose the correct answer, A, B, C or D.

A New Train Service

The 76-mile journey between Kettering and London might take the average motorist one hour and 48 minutes if the roads were averagely busy. A fit cyclist should manage the journey in about 6 hours. On foot, jogging along at around 6mph, it might be a 13-hour journey. But in the age of superfast trains and rampant technological progress, how long do you imagine the train journey might take?

Incredibly, the answer is 18 hours! This is not a one-off commuter’s nightmare journey beset by bad weather and broken trains. This is was the advertised service for the May Bank holiday weekend: An 18 hour journey provided there was no bad weather to spoil the timing. It is all because of engineering works being carried out from Saturday 23 May. East Midlands Trains, which operates services between Kettering and London, is advertising a “service” which will involve the passenger in an epic 18-hour odyssey, requiring them to execute seven changes and endure five bus replacement services as they are taken on a 295-mile mystery tour. Those braving the journey will travel via Derby, Blythe Bridge, Crewe, Stafford and Rugby - virtually a tour of middle England. To cap it all the committed travelers will have the ≪pleasure≫ of a six-hour wait overnight in that 8th Wonder of the World — Milton Keynes Bus Station! After this ≪treat≫ they can board the final connection, and barring delays arrive in London in time for breakfast after an 18-hour journey.

The price of this trip, considering its extraordinary duration, seems suddenly quite reasonable when calculated at an hourly rate, beginning at J40.50 or a little over J2 per hour. But given that one can fly to Australia in the same amount of time seem to give the journey a poor efficiency rating. The journey is among a number of alternatives currently being advertised on the National Rail Enquiries website and on its telephone service.

The Kettering Rail Users’ Group spokesman said: “Engineering work must be carried out but unfortunately what seems to be happening more is that train providers are more concerned to look after their own arrangements rather than those of their customers.” One rail user, Danny Coles, 34, of Kettering, said: “This is completely crazy: Would they honestly expect people to stay overnight at a bus stop?”

A spokeswoman for East Midlands Trains said that travel on this particular itinerary was not especially recommended by the company but it was an option. She stated that in reality there were a number of alternative routes for travel to London that weekend which could get you to the capital in less than three hours. She added that a new timetable offering the “full range” of options was expected to be uploaded by the end of next week. In the most recent National Passenger Survey, East Midlands Trains scored a satisfaction rating of 81 per cent. Whilst details of how this survey was conducted are not to hand, it still seems a promising vote of confidence in the train company. Passenger groups also agreed the company was meeting its commitments to its customers by offering other travel arrangements.

Mr Ashwin Kumar, Passenger Focus director, said: “Passengers understand that engineering works need to happen to ensure a reliable and safe railway.” Probably it could only happen in Britain: The mother country of national rail travel and the supporter of “services” that no other country in the world would ever accept.